The Radiator Panel (small) is a fixed radiator used to dissipate waste heat into space (and atmosphere), by pumping it out of nearby hot parts on the craft, when active, consuming a small amount of electric charge (1.5 per minute).

Part heat may be accumulated from external sources (e.g. re-entry or sunlight from Kerbol) or be generated by reaction engines or the cores of resource harvester drills or converters, while they are active. To be cooled by this radiator, a part must be connected directly, or to a part that is, in turn, connected directly. Radiators make themselves hotter to perform efficiently, but self-limit to avoid heating to destruction.

Unlike the deployable Thermal Control Systems, these panels can be used as structural elements, with other parts attached to them, and are not especially prone to breaking from aerodynamic forces. They lay flat on the surface they are attached to and have a curved outer surface that makes them visually suited to radial attachment on fuel tanks.

Core Cooling

The limiting factor for cooling the cores of drills and converters is the "Core Heat xFer" (transfer) limit of this radiator: 50kW.

This is substantially lower than what the part can actually dissipate, under most circumstances, with a "Max Cooling" figure of: 1048kW.

(*) The Convert-O-Tron 125 is a special case - it can not be maintained at optimal thermal efficiency because its "Max cooling" cap of 50kW is below it's required cooling (100kW). With the help of radiators, it will still reach equilibrium, albeit a little hotter than the optimal 1000K. This is possible because core heat production scales down at higher core temperatures, as the thermal efficiency drops off.

Also note, for both Converters, that the required cooling figure is per active conversion mode, with each unit able to have any, or all, of their four ore conversion modes active at the same time. Hence the Convert-O-Tron 250's required cooling can also exceed its maximum permitted (e.g. 3 modes will produce 600kW of core heating).

Product description

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A radially attachable radiator panel to help dissipate heat into space.